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Effects Tab: Busses

In the Effects tab for busses, you can apply up to four different Effects to an Audio or Auxiliary Bus. When Effects are applied to a channel-based bus, all incoming audio data is submixed before the Effect chain is applied. The Effects are applied in the same order as they appear in the list.

[Note]Note

In the case of an Effect inserted on an Audio Objects bus, whether or not the incoming data is submixed before processing depends on the particular Effect used. Refer to Using Effects with Audio Objects for further details.

When applying Effects in Wwise, you should be aware that a voice can go through the following four levels of Effects:

  • Up to four Effects can be applied on the voice in the Actor-Mixer or Interactive Music hierarchies. But, keep in mind that child objects can also override their parent objects' Effects.

  • Up to four Effects can be applied to each Audio Bus and Auxiliary Bus in the bus hierarchy output path.

  • Up to four Effects can be applied on the final master bus (the Master Audio or the Master Secondary Bus).

  • Up to four Effects can be applied to Audio Devices.

This means that a chain of potentially many Effects will be applied to the final output. You can do a couple of things to manage these Effects:

  • Use the Mode option to set the Effect as a ShareSet, through which you can adjust multiple instances of the same Effect simultaneously. You can also set the Mode to Custom to apply specific settings to an individual Effect instance, as needed.

  • Select the Bypass check box to temporarily remove the Effect, and clear the check box to restore the Effect as desired. This is useful in testing, when you want to establish the impact of the Effect. You can also use Bypass options in RTPCs or Bypass Effect Actions in Events to remove Effects for certain game scenarios or Events.

Unlike Actor-Mixer or Interactive Music object Effects, bus Effects cannot be rendered.

[Tip]Tip

For the Actor-Mixer or Interactive Music object Effects tab, see Effects Tab: Actor-Mixer and Interactive Music Objects.

General

Interface Element

Description

[name]

The name of the object.

Displays the object's color. Clicking the icon opens the color selector.

Select a color to apply it to the object. When you choose a color for an object, a palette icon appears on the selected square, as well as a yellow triangle in the lower-right corner, as shown.

To inherit the parent object's color, select the square at the far left of the color selector.

Controls the Mute and Solo states for the object and shows the implicit mute and solo states for the object.

Muting an object silences this object for the current monitoring session. Soloing an object silences all the other objects in the project except this one.

A bold M or S indicates that the Mute or Solo state has been explicitly set for the object. A non-bold M or S with faded color indicates that the object's Mute or Solo state was implicitly set from another object's state.

Muting an object implicitly mutes the descendant objects.

Soloing an object implicitly mutes the sibling objects and implicitly solos the descendant and ancestor objects.

[Tip]Tip

Hold the Ctrl key while clicking a solo button to exclusively solo the object for which the solo button is associated.

[Note]Note

Mute and Solo are designed to be used for monitoring purposes only and are not persisted in the project or stored in the SoundBanks.

Indicates the number of elements in your project that contain direct references to the object. The icon is displayed in orange when references to the object exist, and in gray when no references exist.

Selecting the button opens the Reference View with the object's name in the References to: field.

Notes

Any additional information about the object properties.

Sets the display of the Property Editor's selected tabs. By default, there is one panel that displays a single selected tab. You can, however, click a splitter button to display two panels, divided horizontally or vertically. The selected option is highlighted with a background color.

You cannot open the same tab in both panels. If you try to open the same tab in both panels, the first panel automatically opens a different tab.

[Tip]Shortcuts for selecting tabs

  • Press Ctrl and the number that corresponds to the number of the Property Editor tab you want to view. For example, Ctrl+4 opens the RTPC tab if it is the fourth visible tab.

Effects

Interface Element

Description

Click the Configure Columns... shortcut (right-click) option from the column header band.

The Configure Columns Dialog opens. Specify which columns to display and their order.

Effects

(Selector)

The list of Effects and corresponding instances that can be applied to the bus. The selected Effect type is displayed in the Effect column.

To remove an Effect, select the None option.

ID

The identification number assigned to the Effect.

Effect

The type of Effect applied to the bus, for example, Compressor, Matrix Reverb, or Parametric EQ.

Name

The name of the Effect instance applied to the bus. The Effect instance can be a ShareSet or a custom instance of a ShareSet.

All Effect instances for the selected Effect type will appear in the corresponding list.

Prev.

Selects the previous ShareSet in the Effects hierarchy.

Next

Selects the next ShareSet in the Effects hierarchy.

Mode

Determines whether the Effect instance is shared. The mode can either be:

  • Define custom: Creates a custom Effect instance whose properties are not shared between objects.

  • Use ShareSet: Uses a ShareSet of an Effect, which means that Effect properties can be shared between objects.

[Note]Converting to a new ShareSet

If you add a custom Effect, then change the Mode to Use ShareSets, the Create ShareSet from Custom Object alert dialog opens. There are three options:

  • Convert: Opens the New Effect dialog, in which you can create a new ShareSet with the specified Effect Settings.

  • Revert: Clears the Effect Editor and reverts the Effect to the original settings of the ShareSet.

  • Cancel: Returns to the unaltered Effect Editor with the Mode restored to Define custom.

(Location in Hierarchy)

Displays the location of the ShareSet in the Effects hierarchy. If it is a custom instance of the Effect, it shows the name of the custom instance.

Bypass

Determines whether the selected Effect instance is processed or not. Select the check box to remove the Effect. Clear the check box to restore the Effect.

This option is useful in the following scenarios:

  • When profiling your game, you can toggle this option on and off to establish the impact of an Effect on the sound design and on CPU usage as indicated in the Performance Monitor.

  • When customizing your sound design per platform, you can unlink the Effects on an object and then bypass certain Effects on that object for platforms with less processing power.

You can also use Bypass options in RTPCs or Bypass Effect Actions in Events to remove Effects for certain game scenarios or Events.

Default value: false

Edit

Opens the Effect Editor, in which you can edit the properties of the selected Effect instance in real time.

Bypass All

Determines whether all Effects inserted on the object are processed or not. Select the check box to remove all Effects. Clear the check box to restore the Effects.

This option is useful in the following scenarios:

  • When profiling your game, you can toggle this option on and off to establish the impact of the Effects on the sound design and on CPU usage as indicated in the Performance Monitor.

  • When customizing your sound design per platform, you can unlink the Effects for an object and then bypass all Effects on that object for platforms with less processing power.

You can also use Bypass options in RTPCs or Bypass Effect Actions in Events to remove Effects for certain game scenarios or Events.

Default value: true


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